I am booked with 3 others with AC on EDI/YYZ/BDA and return, later this year. Premium rouge on the sectors from and to EDI, and outbound YYZ/BDA all paid to sit up front.
For the Inbound BDA/YYZ however, the original bookings were made in economy. (B) Premium rouge / premium economy (N) on trans-Atlantic appears automatically to make the associated North America economy sectors as (B) bookings - this is good IMO!
Prior to making any bookings I checked via Aeroplan to see if the (I) bucket was available to use for upgrades using the *Alliance miles system, i.e. the booking bucket for Business Awards. it was, and showing 2 seats on the selected day! - I also knew that 4 x e-upgrades via myself as a lowly Prestige member would be near impossible, therefore I decided to make two totally separate bookings.
* Alliance points were successfully applied to the booking as soon as it was made for the non-status and seldom flyers individuals. Myself and my nominated co-traveller on the other booking have successfully used e-upgrades from economy (B) to business (R) on BDA/YYZ.
All round very content after a lot of thought.